


My Brother's Keeper

by serenityandstartdust



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Other, Technically Hilda is in this but it's for exactly 30 seconds, This is kinda dark idk, siblings ya kno?, so there's that, they're pretty much beating each other up the entire time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:20:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25213819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serenityandstartdust/pseuds/serenityandstartdust
Summary: Without thinking her hand shot out and she smacked him across the face, as hard as she could.Edward turned pale, his mouth tight, and he snatched Zelda’s wrist, tight as a vise.“You need to stop this, Edward” Zelda said, gritting her teeth against the pain in her wrist.“Don’t tell me what to do, Zelda,” Edward replied, voice cold.
Relationships: Edward Spellman & Zelda Spellman
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	My Brother's Keeper

**Author's Note:**

> Basically the premise for this is if siblings grow up in a house where they have the power to kill each other with impunity....fights over normal things could get really out of hand and you would end up with some pretty fucked up power dynamics. So that's the fic!

The silence of the Spellman mortuary was absolute. It wasn’t the heavy silence of midnight in a mortuary, of dead bodies and empty rooms, nor the silence of any empty house, as the mortuary hadn’t been empty since Ambrose had joined them, or even of the witching hour and the silence before a spell. It was a soft sort of silence, the silence that came on a quiet afternoon. Hilda was in the kitchen drinking tea, Ambrose was smoking lazily in his room, and Zelda was doing idle research in the study. Edward wasn’t making any noise at all because he wasn’t home.  
The research Zelda was doing was stiflingly boring to most people, not in the least because it was in Proto-Aramaic. Currently she was working on a new translation and commentary of the lesser key of Solomon. Technically it was for Edward to present at a conference next year, but mostly it was for afternoons like these, which tended to pile up if you lived for centuries.  
It wasn’t as relaxing as it normally was though, because she was missing a crucial book, the Ars Goetia. For most of Zelda’s long life it had sat on the shelf in the Spellman family library, but today it was gone. She’d already checked the academy library, but had returned empty handed. It was a strange thing to be missing, because unless Ambrose had taken it for some inscrutable reason, Edward must have removed it from their library without telling her.  
She had tried her best to work on it without the book, but was quickly running out of places to go with her current paragraph without the Ars Goetia. Breaking the silence of the house, she rose from her chair and strode up the stairs to Edward’s room, pausing just outside the closed door. Always secretive, he'd been even worse since becoming high priest and Satan's gift to the masses. He had recently made it clear in no uncertain terms that no one was to go into his room without permission.  
Even so, he was still her brother, this was still their house, and he was probably out for the day.  
Zelda looked around surreptitiously, and leaned against the door, palm and ear pressed to the wood. In the dark of the hallway, for the mortuary was always dark, her pale skin and bright hair stood out in sharp relief.  
Ear pressed to the door, she listened intently, murmuring spells, trying to see if there was anything besides the lock sealing the door shut. Knowing Edward there could have been any number of spells keeping it closed, but it seemed as if he was only relying on the lock.  
Satisfied that there weren’t any spells about to disembowel her, Zelda opened the door with a sharp flick of her wrist and walked in. The room was full to the brim, books and candles and enchanted objects on every surface, like the rest of the mortuary, technically neat but bordering on cluttered.  
The bookshelf was much the same, books stacked twodeep and sharing the shelfs with small potted plants and jars. Zelda paused just inside the doorway and swept her gaze over the bookshelf. The Ars Goetia was predominantly placed on the top shelf next to a jar of geodes. Of course. Why in Satan’s name Edward had moved it here, when he knew full well she was writing a paper on it, was beyond her. 

Zelda swept into the room, past the desk which was covered in loose papers and notebooks, and removed the Ars Goetia, as well as a few other books she’d been looking for, including the Academy’s aramic grammar. Zelda hadn't used a grammar in years, but Edward must have needed to translate the Ars Goetia. Adorable.

Tucking the books under her arm and turning to leave. As she did, a slight breeze from the open window rustled the papers on the desk, and a heavier scroll underneath them caught her eye. 

She cast a furtive glance to the door, then bent over the desk, rifling through the papers. Edward never let anyone, even her, look through his work before he was convinced it was fit for general review. There wasn’t much here, it all seemed to be specific notes from some text he was working on translating, though the references were all very obscure. 

Absently, with the papers still in one hand, she picked up the scroll sitting on the desk, the one that had caught her eye. The weight of it in her hand surprised her, and she put down the notes to give it her full attention. When she did she felt her blood pressure soar and she fell into the chair. It was the beginning of a manifesto. Only one commandment in. Manifestos weren’t unusual for a high priest but the tenet it was espousing… utter blasphemy.

Of all of the block-headed things he’s done, this surely takes the prize. A High Priest of the Church of Night, encouraging mortal witch interaction? Procreation? If anyone found out about this, if the Dark Lord- It didn’t bear thinking about. Reeling with shock she poured over the notes, books forgotten on the desk.

As she read further, past simply the manifesto and into the extensive notes she’d brushed by earlier, loose objects in the room began to swirl around her in a dark orbit, subject to her anger, but she was too lost in the manifesto to notice.  
Footsteps clipped on the floor outside and a shadow fell over Zelda. 

“What the Heaven are you doing in here Zelda?” Edward snapped, striding into the room. His face darkened when he saw where she sat, what was in her hands. 

“What exactly do you call this, Edward?” Zelda stood and whirled to face him, advancing menacingly with the Ars Goetia and manifesto in hand. Edward had the decency to look galled, though he didn’t back down, but advanced towards her. 

“I’ve told you a hundred times Zelda, you are not to go through my things or into my room.” Edward forced through gritted teeth. 

“I was looking for the Ars Goetia, Edward,” Zelda snapped back. The door behind Edward slammed shut with the force of her anger. “You know, the Satanic text? Written about the teachings of our Dark Lord? Does that ring a bell?” 

The sarcasm in her voice was sharp enough to cut, but Edward was only looking more and more angry. They were barely inches apart, and wind was starting to whip around the room, pulling at their clothes. When Edward didn’t say anything, Zelda continued, voice rising. 

“Instead I found this!” She gestured for emphasis, jabbing the manifesto at his chest. “This drivel!” She gestured with the manifesto again. “Profaning the word of our Dark Lord in this house!” she punctured the sentence with another stab at him with the scroll.  
The look on Edward’s face was as angry as she'd ever seen it. Now he finally knows how I feel, she thought, hair whipping her cheeks. 

“Zelda, if you would shut up for one moment, I can explain.” Edward said slowly, through gritted teeth. 

“Oh! What’s there to explain Edward?” Zelda said, nearly laughing at this. “The Praise! Adoration! Hell below us, the Love of one god wasn’t enough for you?” She punctuated every word with another gesture with the scroll.

“You just needed more!” This time she finally hit him with the scroll, and the Ars Goetia, hard, and his arms whipped up, shoving her away from him. 

“Back off Zelda” He growled, eyes dangerous.  
Heedless of the fact that they were fully grown, centuries old adults, and not children too young for the academy, she shoved him back, with enough force and magic to slam him against the door, gasping. With a word she pinned him down with a spell. 

“Really Edward” Zelda said scornfully, flicking her hair out of her face. “Is this really worth it, this… garbage?” At the word the papers on his desk burst into flames. 

Zelda turned her back to Edward for a moment, picking up the fallen Ars Goetia. The second her back was turned, Edward broke free of the spell pinning him towards the door, and shouted a spell, flipping over the heavy bookshelf and pinning her under it. 

Zelda cried out at the weight of the bookshelf and a second, sharp pain in her ribs drove a soft sob from her lungs. Pressing up uselessly against the wood, a sliver of fear wormed its way into her heart. It had been years and years since Edward had been angry enough to use magic against her. 

Next to the fallen bookshelf Edward was carefully putting out the fires on his desk, trying to salvage his work. Taking a deep, painful breath, Zelda pressed her palms to the wood and whispered a spell. The bookshelf flew off of her and back against the wall, splinters of wood flying in the air.  
Edward turned back to face her as she stood up, face furious.  
“Do you understand what you’ve done Zelda? You’ve ruined months of research and for what?” 

“Your pride will be the downfall of us all Edward,” Zelda shot back, grasping the desk with one hand and pulling herself to her feet. “We will be ruined, all of us, the Dark Lord will smite us down-” 

“You don’t understand Zelda!” Edward shouted. “Satan above you never understand, none of you do! You’re all so stupid!”  
Sudden rage gripped Zelda, and the electric beginnings of a curse crackled to life in her hand.  
“I am not stupid, Edward.” Zelda said, voice deadly quiet. Edward just rolled his eyes in response, breaking any control Zelda had over her emotions. “Do not belittle me to serve your own flawed ambitions!” Zelda screamed.  
Edward was nearly shaking with anger. “This isn’t about you Zelda! This is about us, about our future, it-”  
This is what he said, every time, it was always about his future and his legacy, and Zelda could not stand it anymore. Without thinking her hand shot out and she smacked him across the face, as hard as she could.  
Edward turned pale, his mouth tight, and he snatched Zelda’s wrist, tight as a vise. 

“You need to stop this, Edward” Zelda said, gritting her teeth against the pain in her wrist. 

“Don’t tell me what to do, Zelda,” Edward replied, voice cold.

“I will do whatever I need to to protect this family.” Edward’s grip on her wrist tightened enough that she felt one of the small bones break. She cried at the sudden pain and kicked out at him, stilettos connecting with his leg, then stamped down on his foot. 

Edward shouted in pain and slammed her against the wall, hands around her throat. 

“Oh very mature Edward” she choked out, and the grip on her throat tightened, her vision blacking out at the edges. Satan above he means to kill me she thought, slamming her hands against his chest, with no effect. It had been a long time since Zelda had spent a night in the Cain pit, and the fear of that cold embrace focused her enough to slam Edward backwards with a spell, pinning him as he’d pinned her, under the bookshelf. 

Zelda fell to her knees, clutching her throat with her good wrist. After her first ragged breath she pulled herself to her feet just as Edward broke free of the bookshelf.

The first wave of his curse broke over her, driving her back to her knees, but before he could get any closer to her, cast any more spells, Zelda reached out and snapped his neck with a spell and a sharp motion of her hand. 

Unfinished, the curse died with him. Gingerly Zelda leaned back against the desk and caught her breath.  
When she felt up to standing she went down stairs, and Hilda helped her set her wrist and mended her bruised throat and broken rib. 

Hilda had delivered her usual argument about constructive debate and family civility, and had asked what caused the fight. Zelda had only told her that it had been an academic argument.

Telling Hilda about the manifesto would only encourage her to be even more friendly with mortals or lead her to tell someone in the church about it. Either way, trouble Zelda couldn’t deal with right now. 

Hilda helped her drag Edward down the stairs as well,but Zelda buried him in the Cain Pit herself. It was a long, slow, task without magic and dusk had fully fallen by the time Edward was in the ground. 

It didn’t take him long to resurrect, only an hour or so’s worth of chain smoking on the porch. At the first disturbance of the dirit Zelda took the shovel and went down to the pit. Carefully she helped dig him out of the grave, until they were both sitting, covered head to toe in dirt, on the edge of the grave. 

Edward didn’t say anything and neither did Zelda. When they finally caught their breath she handed him a cigarette and lit one for herself. 

Letting out a long breath of smoke Zelda said what she’d been thinking since she’d killed him.  
“I’m just trying to keep you safe” The words escaped with a small, sad laugh.

“Funny way to go about it Zelda” Edward replied, though without any vitriol.

“I know.” She sighed. “I just- if the wrong people find out about this… you could lose everything Edward. We all could.”  
Edward turned to her with a smile. “You worry too much little sister. I’m the high priest, I’ve managed to get Faustus and the other leaders almost onto my side, all I have left is the anti-pope and the dark lord. 

The opposite of Edward’s confidence, fear wormed into Zelda’ stomach. Oh Edward I don’t think I’m worried enough.  
“Oh come on Zee” Edward teased, eyes bright in the dark of the night. “I need to finish the manifesto first before I show it to them of course. In fact-” He took a deep drag off his cigarette. “Could you read it for me? Properly this time?” 

Zelda hesitated, if she were any sort of smart she’d burn that manifesto if she saw it again.  
“You can pretend it’s the newspaper” Edward cajoled. “I’ll even write it in German or something if that would help. C’mon Zelda, just say yes”  
Zelda sighed. There wasn’t a chance in heaven she wouldn’t regret this one day. “Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Don't read too much into the whole manifesto thing, I fully might write a fic where they're just talking about the manifesto and not fighting over it, I just needed something for Zelda to get mad about (originally it was a Bible but idk how supported that was/would be by canon and the manifesto was just kinda easier).


End file.
